Hi, I was with some fellow spotters this afternoon. There was nothing special. When suddenly a fellow spotter noticed a fuel leak coming out from the right wing of Nouvelair A320 TS-INB that was taxiing to take-off. The aircraft made a 180° and stopped just in front of us. The pilot shutted down the engines and soon the firefighters came and spreaded foam over the fuel. The passengers were deplaned. Here are some pictures I've taken during the incident.

There was even an ambulance to take a guy (maybe shocked?)

This is the second Nouvelair incident I saw in less than a month here in GVA!!

Not to take anything away from the pictures, they are excellent. But IMO, the rescue crews took unnecessary measures dealing with the fuel. Maybe things are done differently in other parts of the world, but when I saw the first pic of the ARFF crews dousing the fuel with foam, my first reaction was, "why the hell are they doing that?" Many of you know that jet fuel in this type of state is rather stable, so IMO, this was an unnecessary action. Not to mention the fact that they probably freaked the hell out of some of the passengers.

Quoting Alphafloor (Reply 9):I'm not an expert on A320, but could the fuel be leaking out of the fuel jettison thing?

I think the A320 do not has a jettison.

Most narrow bodies don't have jettison capabilities. Usually, fuel leaking from this location is coming from an overflow valve. Fuel will come out of these valves when it's either faulty (obviously) or in an overflow situation. I've seen this numerous times during fueling operations where there has been a capacity miscalculation or the wrong switched was turned on/off..

I'm not a real aeronautical engineer, I just play one on Airliners.net.

Quoting Boeing Nut (Reply 10):But IMO, the rescue crews took unnecessary measures dealing with the fuel. Maybe things are done differently in other parts of the world, but when I saw the first pic of the ARFF crews dousing the fuel with foam, my first reaction was, "why the hell are they doing that?" Many of you know that jet fuel in this type of state is rather stable, so IMO, this was an unnecessary action. Not to mention the fact that they probably freaked the hell out of some of the passengers.

I cannot agree more with you. That was also our opinion while watching the scene. Plus it was 8°C !

Quoting Boeing Nut (Reply 10):I've seen this numerous times during fueling operations where there has been a capacity miscalculation or the wrong switched was turned on/off..

Great pictures! My guess for the leak is a fuel transfer mix up or a stuck vent valve. I would think the crew transfered fuel to the left wing or possibly a fuselage tank, stopping the leak. I agree, the firefighters might have gone a little overboard, but there's nothing wrong to err on the side of safety. Plus, those guys don't get to play with the foam all to often. Let them have their fun. I'm sure a good announcement to the pax from the crew would calm most, if not all, fears.

Quoting BA777 (Reply 17):Thats what I thought RootsAir (how are you BTW?)

My pics show the same things, I'm the one that spotted it leaking originally.

Henry

Hi Henry,

Alejandro told me you were the first one to notice!
I'm doing fine thanks. hope you arrived home well. Sorry if I couldn't make it. I had quite a lot to study and I wanted to get abit ahead given that I'm in BCN meet next week.
Have you already uploaded your pics into the database?
Take care
BM

A man without the knowledge of his past history,culture and origins is like a tree without roots

Is it me or did they get foam in the engine? If so that was a very expensive over reaction! Foam yes but - and I could be wrong - I can't imagine the protocol is to foam the engine. I'd hate to have to pay the bill to clean that up.

Of course had the situation gone south and they'd exercised restraint, the airmchaire fireman, like us, would have been all over them for holding back.

Quoting Piercey (Reply 25):Great pics. Is the plane still @ GVA and if so where?

Thanks for the compliments, but honestly it was an easy task as the aircraft stopped right in front of us. The plane is still in GVA, I'll call tomorrow to some insiders to gather some more informations about what happened. If somebody else has informations don't hesitate to post.

Holy Schnikes! Thar she blows! Like an upside-down geyser of kerosene! I watched a UPS MD-11's #3 engine do some sort of a mini-surge or stall when thrust reversers were deployed, and I didn't have a camera with me. You lucky duck!!

Really nice photos, This is gonna sound crazy but when i first saw the first one it looks like an high quality aircraft from Flight Simualtor, Must go to show how well Micrisoft Are doing with the game lol.

Quoting Boeing Nut (Reply 10):Not to take anything away from the pictures, they are excellent. But IMO, the rescue crews took unnecessary measures dealing with the fuel. Maybe things are done differently in other parts of the world, but when I saw the first pic of the ARFF crews dousing the fuel with foam, my first reaction was, "why the hell are they doing that?" Many of you know that jet fuel in this type of state is rather stable, so IMO, this was an unnecessary action. Not to mention the fact that they probably freaked the hell out of some of the passengers.

After the refuelling incident in Denver a few years ago where a refueller lost his life taking precautions like this when fuel could get near a hot engine seems very reasonable. It is better to be safe than sorry in these sort of incidents.

It looks like fuel venting from an overflow valve to me. We see it on our 747's from time to time. Happens when the outer wing tanks are overfilled, or fuel tank transfer doesn't work properly. Still, could just be a bloody great big leak, I suppose!

Quoting SpeedBird203 (Reply 35):This is gonna sound crazy but when i first saw the first one it looks like an high quality aircraft from Flight Simualtor, Must go to show how well Micrisoft Are doing with the game lol.

I assume this comes from the fact you saw "jaggies" in the photos as your browser probably automatically resized them? Click on the images above to open the full-sized images.

Any chance the foam could be used to aid in the cleanup of the fuel? Fuel spills are a pain to clean up... I dunno, just a thought.

ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.

Quoting DIJKKIJK (Reply 7):I'm not an expert on A320, but could the fuel be leaking out of the fuel jettison thing? If I'm correct, it is located at approximately the place where the fuel is leaking from.

Even widebodies can land at maximum weight, even though it is safer to dump. The reason widebodies have fuel dump capabilities is that it would take so long to burn off the fuel compared to a narrowbody. For narrowbodies the extra expense and weight of fuel dumping capability is not justified. If necessary, the fuel is burned off.

"There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots." - John Ringo

Quoting Hamster (Reply 48):How will the airline and the authorities deal with this situation moving foward ie leaking plane, messed up engine and floam all over the tarmac?

As i stated in a previous post, the engine is most likely NOT messed up.

The foam on the tarmac is simply removed with water. The firetrucks can spray water instead of foam, and it is easy to clean.

Quoting Hamster (Reply 48):what would have happened if this plane took off without noticing the leak?

99.99% sure nothing would have happened.
It was probably a faulty valve, that caused this to happen. It's not like the plane would explode in the air.
The crew would have found out, that fuel were leaving the tanks to fast, and they would have landed.

I dont know how many gallons leaked out of the plane, but 5 gallons on the tarmac looks like a lot, but in reality it's not.

IMHO the fire-brigade handled this thing 100% correct. No reason whatsoever to take a chance, no matter how slim the chances are for a fire.